Lex Luger fired the first shot in the Monday Night Wars when he jumped from WWE to WCW, appearing at the end of the premiere episode of WCW Nitro.
Luger's contract with WWE had expired, though he was trying to work things out on a handshake deal.
"If I stayed there, and Vince [McMahon] and I were trying to work it out. When I went to Nitro, that was a last minute thing between Sting and Eric Bischoff. A random phone call with Sting because of our friendship. I wasn’t under contract anymore and we were trying to work it out on a handshake. I was going to stay at WWE. I had no plan on leaving," Luger told Chris Van Vliet on Insight.
Speaking about his appearance on Nitro, Luger commented, "We had no idea. They kept it a big secret, but we had no idea Nitro and the Monday Night Wars were going to get so big. When Sting told me they were doing a Monday night show, I was like, ‘Good luck with that. Up against Raw.’ That was my input. WCW was always a distant second. ‘We try hard, but we’re number two.’ We had no idea it was going to overtake them. I had no idea that moment when I walked out there, they had to actually pull me off the taped shows we had already done for WWE. I was very uncomfortable because of my good relationship with Vince. I couldn’t tell him I was going to do that. That was Eric’s one stipulation. I went home to my wife. ‘Peg, he wants me to leave and Eric wants me to give him no notice and show up on Nitro.’ I heard rumors Vince was watching with his wife. Linda turned to him and never said anyting but [had a look of] ‘if you ever bring that guy back.’ Vince would always forgive and bring guys back, but people thought it was impossible. I’m not sure that’s true, but I heard that rumor that Linda was angrier with me because Vince and I had such a good relationship and I gave no notice."
Asked if he heard from Vince after jumping, Luger replied, "Yeah, we saw each other at the airport a year later. He shook my hand, smiled, and we were cool. It’s business."
Luger would have a successful run in WCW, including winning the WCW World Title in 1997.
Elsewhere during the interview, Luger said he was clean during his WWE run. You can find his full comments by clicking here.
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